The Empires and Enclaves of Europe

If you live in an empire it may not matter that you don't like your neighbors much. You are both too busy fighting the remote government or trying to pay your exorbitant taxes. But what if that emperor goes away and you now live in a nation-state created by your nasty neighbor? Well, you and your friends want you own place, right? Autonomy, self-determination, all that? Before you get ethnically cleansed by the other guy...

Enclaves and Exclaves

Enclave

(Figure 1)

In political geography, an enclave is a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory.

An exclave, on the other hand, is a territory legally attached to a larger territory with which it is not physically contiguous.

These are two distinct concepts, although many entities fit both definitions.

In Fig. 1 above, C is an exclave of B, and is also an enclave within A. If C were independent it would be an enclave but not an exclave.

In Fig. 2 below, D is again an exclave of B, but is not an enclave, because it has boundaries with more than one country.

...

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Exclave

(Figure 2)

Why are enclaves and exclaves important?

In recent decades, provoked by 9/11 and many other disasters and crises where "they didn't see it coming", not just the CIA but other organizations with an international focus, have come to realize that good policy (and good intelligence) stems from a good, all-round education, and an understanding of history and geography, as well as politics.

Our news services, distracted by the need to "entertain," do us little service either, by failing to provide this necessary background. Even the BBC and CNN don't always get into the depth that is needed for real understanding.

Many contemporary geopolitical problems stem from or are at least heavily shaped, by legacies of empire that cannot be expressed satisfactorily in our modern system of nation-states, especially the problems of enclaves and exclaves (see above).

The map of Azerbaijan which I've chosen to use as the banner image for this lens is a perfect illustration of the problem (as is the current [Aug,2008] crisis in Georgia).

I love the image of a bird flying over the Caucasus with Baku, the beak, jutting out into the Caspian sea. But the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is not even indicated on the map. The detached tail feather is the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan.
Naxcivan was created when Stalin attached "Russian Armenia" to Armenia "proper", detaching the Azeri population west of this area from Azerbaijan "proper" - not a problem when both Armenians and Azeris are "subjects" of Ottoman Turkey or Stalinist Russia. A perpetual causus belli when both countries are independent.

Irridentism

Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan movements.

It is a feature of identity politics and cultural and political geography. Since most borders have been moved and redrawn at one point, a great many countries could theoretically present irredentist claims to their neighbours.

However, some states are the subject of potential irredentism from birth. Post-WWI Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Near East had borders carved out by the Allies that left many of the new states in that region unsatisfied due to minority populations and conflicting historical claims.

Many of Africa's borders were artificially imposed by European colonial powers. The result split ethnic groups between different countries, such as the Yoruba who are divided among Nigeria, and Benin. In some cases, the irredentist arguing continued well past the Second World War and on to the present day.

...

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Gagauzia

On December 23, 1994, Gagauzia became a "national-territorial autonomous unit" within Moldavia. The date is now a Gagauzian holiday. Many European human-rights organizations have recognized Gagauzia as a successful model for resolving ethnic conflict...

Transnistria

When Moldavia and Ukraine became states independent of the former Soviet Union, it probably seemed logical to avoid having the boundary run down the middle of the Dneister river. But the people living in the area East of the Dneister, between the riv...

The Karelia Question

This lens is about the current Karelia question and the history of Karelia's partitions since the Swedish-Novgorod Wars of the 13th. century. It complements lenses on Finland and the (Russian) Republic of Karelia.

Please 'Listen': Global Voices

Global Voices Online: Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore.

The 3:00 AM Call

A Focus on Empires, Enclaves and Exclaves

We sometimes forget that the nation-state is a recent invention. At one time, in what seemed to be a natural order of things, a tribe or a city-state would expand, not through conquest of its neighbors, but by leapfrogging to the next valley over.

But from time to time, one or other of these city-states or families/tribes would conquer its neighbors, then their neighbors, and so on. All of the people(s) in an area would come under the domination of a single Emporer. More often than not, the Empire would disintegrate on the death of the Emporer. When that empire declined, or was defeated, a patchwork quilt of different peoples was left behind.

Sometimes, this led to a cosmopolitan successor society where the different peoples came together successfully. But just as often, the solution of one culture to resolve "the problem of ethnicities" has been 'ethnic cleansing' or forced external or internal migration.

[Europe according to a widely accepted definition: geographic Europe in green, and cultural Europe in dark blue (Asian parts of European states in light blue). Even this map under-reports the Eastern distribution of European influence and culture, and the effects of Stalin's Russification policies.

Just think about the Jewish Autonomous Republic, bordering China in the Far East, or the European character of Harbin, capital of the Province of Helongjiang, People's Republic of China, where Russian workers began the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway.]

This set of cascading lenses concentrates on three "legacies of empire" - the Ottoman Empire, especially its effect on the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Levant; the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its legacy for Central Europe; the Soviet Union and its legacy in the Baltic; Each of these will be coupled with consideration of Russia's current policies and military strategies - thus Russia in the Balkans; Russia in the Baltic; and Russia in the Caucasus.

There are also connected lenses that will explore displacements and diasporas; the possibility and roles of international and supranational legal systems; and the naval strategy dimension of current crises between Russia and the West.

The module takes an apparently loose view of the Eastern boundary of "Europe" based in fact on the Russian definition that the four westernmost Federal Districts of Russia are all in Europe. That, together with Russia's past southern expansion, takes us at least as far east as the Caspian Sea.

All this will be from an Anglo-American perspective. That's what I know. I am by no means an expert but I will try to provide useful pointers to at least some of the underlying factors that should be taken into account when considering contemporary crises, when the phone rings at 3 a.m. Washington time, "Why this now?"

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We at Squidoo passionately believe in creating new ways to support good causes online. By making a donation to International Rescue Committee from this page, you are sending money directly to that organization, in whatever amount you want. We don't touch it. We don't even see it. The author of this page doesn't either. And if you made it this far, thanks for caring.

The Role of THIS Lens

Basically, this is the top-level lens of a cascade of lenses. See the lens index at the end of this lens (and each lens) to get an overview of what is included. This is a "living document" so the index will change from time to time.

There's not much cultural or political content at this level, mainly pointers to the subsidiary lenses. However, there are a number of entries about tools, perspectives, and learning opportunities.

This lens is not specifically aimed at any audience. I hope it will be useful for college and high school teachers; interested adults; and all those news freaks out there.

From Empire to Nationhood

KCL: ISS - Archives - Empire to Nationhood exhibition: Online exhibition concerning the
aftermath of World War Two for Britain and nations of its former empire

L'Europe des Patries and TheTreaty of Lisbon

Fair and Balanced Reporting?

It is impossible to avoid bias on some of the issues discussed in this lens-cascade, so it is best to reveal one's own biases.

I grew up in north west England, in the county of Lancaster. The county of Yorkshire, just the other side of the Pennine range, was the old enemy. (See Shakespeare's 'Richard III' for details.) We referred, every year, to the annual cricket match, as "the War of the Roses." Genuine natives of each county, in those pre-TV days, spoke almost mutually unintelligible versions of English. But we had no doubt we were all part of England, Britain, and the Commonwealth of Nations (the re-working of the British Empire),

On the other hand, I'm from a Welsh family, went to a bilingual college in Wales, and my nieces and great nephews are all products of the Welsh-language education system. I've campaigned for greater autonomy for Wales. I think an independent Wales would be viable within Europe, but I'm happy with the current arrangement (a Welsh Assembly within the United Kingdom).

Basically, I advocate federal structures which would accommodate local and regional self-expression, as an alternative to full independence and "Balkanization."

My shorthand label to describe this policy is a mis-re-appropriation of the phrase "Europe des Patries" - de Gaulle meant by this, a European Community that was a confederation where the constituent countries retained more sovereignty than states do in the US system. That's the one thing the founding fathers didn't take over from the Iroquios Confederacy.

I'm using it here to describe a (con)federal structure which would allow freedom for 'self-determination' across nation/state boundaries. This would be an answer to the Basque 'problem' and maybe a better answer for Scotland and Wales.

I now live in the US which, I guess, reinforces my Anglo-American perspective on the issues discussed "below."

Who might benefit from a new kind of Europe des Patries?

The Basque

Guernica and the Basque

This mural in the Basque town of Guernica is based on the painting by Pablo Picasso responding to the pattern bombing (blitzkrieg) of the town in 1937, by during the Spanish Civil War.

The Flemish and The Walloons

The Flemish and The Walloons: The Kingdom of Belgium

Belgium is a coalition, at times an uneasy coalition, of two cultures: the Fleming and the Walloon. This lens examines the mechanisms of their coexistence, and the importance of the European Community as an over-arching framework, beyond the Belgian...

The Welsh

The Art and Culture of Wales

Cymru (Wales) is a mountainous country to the West of England. Its inhabitants since the Iron Age, the Welsh, are a Celtic people. Cymraeg, the Welsh language is in the Brythonic* branch of Celtic. The other branches are Goedelic (which includes the...

The Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon is the final nail in the coffin of De Gaulle's version of Europe des Patries . The treaty will begin the conversion of the European Community from a confederal structure to a federation more akin to a United States (of America or Brazil), with more power to the center and more direct representation of the people, diminishing the power of the national governments. This could begin to create a framework where the Basque separatists, the Welsh nationalists, and the Belgian duopoly, could all be accommodated in the spirit of a community of equals, a Europe of recognized ethnicities.

...

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Academic Perspectives

Comparative Politics

What can we learn from other political systems than our own? Are there any non-military solutions out there to the problems created by the enclaves and exclaves that are the remnants of empire? Can political systems resolve the tensions between the d...

Historical Geography

We are all pretty clear on what Geographers and Historians do, right? But Historical Geographers? I'm not one officially, but I have always been one by temperament. Whenever I visit a new place, I ask myself, how did this place come to be here? How...

Language Learning

Legacies of Empire

Living Aspects of Antiquity: The Classical World in Action Today

Did/do you have trouble following those bits in the History books when it says Alexander or Caesar or Genghis Khan or whoever defeated or failed to conquer the Circus-ians, the Jelly-tees, or the High-Liar-Un's? Did you realize that, with fortunatel...

The Austro-Hungarian Empire and its Legacy

One late spring day a treaty was signed (The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867) which would seal the fate of Europe through two World Wars. Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria became also the King of Hungary. The two halves of the new empire would be...

The Political Legacy of the USSR in the Baltic and Scandinavia

Access to the Atlantic through the Baltic is of prime importance to Russia. The geography of the Baltic has shaped Russian policy to Scandinavia and the Baltic states of Latvia Lithuania and Estonia for centuries.

The Ottoman Empire and its Political Legacy

Of all empires, the Ottoman Empire seems to have left behind the most complex and prolific checkerboard of enclaves and exclaves. The pattern of pockets of peoples left behind in the territories of the successor nation-states is compounded by the rel...

The Helenistic World: Turkey, Greece, & The Mediterranean

Other Perspectives

Strobe Talbott looks back to the consolidation of tribes into nations -- starting with Israel -- and the absorption of those nations into the empires of Hammurabi, the Pharaohs, Alexander, the Caesars, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, the Ottomans, and the Hapsburgs, through incessant wars of territory and religion, to modern alliances and the global conflagrations of the twentieth century.

The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation

by: Strobe Talbott

Amazon Price: $25.80 (as of 01/04/2010)

If you are at all interested in the idea underlying the Empires and Enclaves series of lenses - that the end of empires has left behind nation-states fatally flawed and incompetent at meeting the needs of their encapsulated minorities - this book is a necessity!

Maritime Perspectives in Global Politics

The over-arching theme of the set of lenses to which this lens belongs, Empires and Enclaves, is the problems of groups of peoples being surrounded by each other, as nation-states took over from empires. Sometimes that results in rich, multi-ethnic,...

The possibility of an international legal system

Some nations have declared themselves subject to a system of laws greater themselves. Others, notably the USA, "cherry pick" which cases they will put forward to such courts. A very few nations maintain that they are subject to no laws other than the...

Dispersals and Diasporas

Current Crises

Today's Flashpoints: News Feed From Wikinews

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Gaza

Where is Gaza? Why is Gaza? What is it like to live there? Who should rule Gaza? The Israeli-Gaza Conflict

Iraq and the Levant

For the last 1000 years, the area we call Iraq today has been made up of five cultural communities: Kurdish in the north; Sunni Islamic Arabs in the center; Shi'a Islamic Arabs in the south; Assyrians, a Christian people, live in some of the northern...

Afghanistan

In 2009 a world power (the US) is considering doubling the number of troops in Afghanistan; views the Kabul-based government as weak and "disengaged"; looks forward to Afghani elections; vows to 'deal with' terrorist safe havens (in Bactria?) on the...

The Kurds and Kurdistan

Kurdish history in antiquity is of defiant survival of a culture despite successive conquests by one "great" empire after another. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focussed on the goal of an indepe...

The Great Game, Again: Russia, Georgia, and the Southern Thrust

Russia's humiliation of Georgia is not accidental. Ossetia provided a pretext for an instructive lesson. Russia has demonstrated that it can close down the new Silk Route, the Baku pipelines that run through Georgia, at will. If it wants to take thin...

Connections

Group and Index Lenses

100 Lenses About Russia

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Everything Eastern European Headquarters

Everything Eastern European: This group-lens aka lens-group is about Everything Eastern European including news, politics, travel, shopping, travel, history, people, et. al. What is considered Eastern Europe? The included countries are Hungary, Roma...

Soviets and Successors Headquarters

Soviets and Successors All groups connected with member countries of the Soviet Union, their predecessors, and their successors. Also art, life, and culture of those countries.

Scandinavia and Scandinavism

Scandinavism (also called Pan-Scandinavianism) and Nordism are literary and political movements that support various degrees of cooperation between the Scandinavian or Nordic countries. There is surprisingly quite a lot of disagreement about what Sc...

Empires and Enclaves Index Lens

This lens indexes a cascade of lenses "Empires and Enclaves" which attempts to provide pointers to geographical, historical, and political background information on current crises e.g. South Ossetia 2008 Certain places whose status is disputed are i...

A Final Thought....

Fall of Empires

From the decline of the Roman Empire, we have seen similarities from their fall manifested within the failure of other empires. The Roman Empire held a massive amount of area. This also led to an increased population size. The Empire became "over-ext...